Organized Labor Joins Drive for Yiddish Broadcasts to Soviet Union

October 1, 1971

BOSTON (Sep. 30)

Pressures to get the United States Information Agency to begin broadcasting in Yiddish to the Soviet Union over the Voice of America mounted this week as a result of a campaign inaugurated by the Jewish Labor Committee to involve organized labor in the issue. The move came in the form of resolutions by trade union conventions calling on the involved agencies to act positively.

Some 200 delegates attending the Convention of the Maine State Federated Labor Council in Bangor, voted unanimously “that in keeping with the American ideal of showing solidarity with the oppressed and concern for human dignity and human rights, this Convention calls on the Voice of America to institute Yiddish-language broadcasts to the Soviet Union.”

A similar resolution was unanimously passed by 125 delegates attending the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Copies of both resolutions were ordered sent to the USIA and to Secretary of State William P. Rogers. Resolutions to the same effect will be under consideration by delegates to the Mass. AFL-CIO convention in Boston and the New Hampshire AFL-CIO convention in Nashua.